


A Promise Remembered, a Promise Made

by agirlfromniima



Series: A Promise Remembered, a Promise Made [1]
Category: TPN - Fandom, noremma - Fandom, 約束のネバーランド | Yakusoku no Neverland | The Promised Neverland (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Drama, Emotional, F/M, Noremma, secrecy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-18 02:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21520522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlfromniima/pseuds/agirlfromniima
Summary: An AU where Norman has to stay behind in the demon world and Emma and friends can only visit him one week a year.
Relationships: Emma & Norman (The Promised Neverland), Emma/Norman (The Promised Neverland)
Series: A Promise Remembered, a Promise Made [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1551103
Comments: 24
Kudos: 73





	1. The Silent Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> I already have most of the second chapter drafted and should be able to post sometime next week, just need to find the time between school and work.
> 
> Here's my sweet noremma musings. Enjoy and please feel free to comment/criticize!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A link to the google doc with original formatting can be found here  
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1625achHUqe3aNyP4YYmpTagd6vm0aaVs9TwFuy3ieRY/edit?usp=sharing

His foot tapped maniacally on the floor as he stood there waiting, their claps upon the surface sounding unrhythmic and almost thunderous. 

_TtttttTttttTttttt._

“Ah, Norman! Why so tense? You know they’ll be here any minute!” a high-pitched, feminine voice inquired. Leave it to Barabara to always be on top of his day-to-day quirks. 

He opened his mouth to reply but another voice stole away his chance to for him.

“Eh haven’t you noticed by now?” Cislo remarked in a mocking tone as if she were a child unaware of a common truth. “He’s been nervous like this every year. Always worried they’d take a wrong path, that demons might--”

He couldn’t stand it anymore. “You guys, I’m fine. Really!” Norman reassured them, half-laughing. “And _they_ are too, I’m sure. No wrong turns, just like every other year.”

They eyed each other, unsatisfied with their friend’s explanation but were not tempted to complain. 

At least they weren’t totally off-mark. Norman _was_ apprehensive, and yes, nervous.

It was four years ago when Emma made the promise with the Demon God--the one that would let all cattle children everywhere escape free into the human world. 

Well, almost all. 

Norman had distinctly remembered the moment she had to tell him the God’s “reward”; her round face had turned red as she tried to choke back tears. “Norman...you _can’t_ come. You must stay here and ensure we can never come back. You must be a gatekeeper…” 

He couldn’t believe her words. They sounded like echoes out of a half-remembered dream. In the last three years of his life then he had dreamed of nothing more than to be with his family, always. To live, laugh, and grow with them. At that moment, he was about to choke back tears himself when Emma suddenly continued. “But there’s a catch.”

She held up the large blue pendant that hung as a necklace up for him to see. “I struck a bargain with this.” She had told him the necklace was given to her by the mythical demon enchantress, Musica, for protection and of the powers it had possessed. She went on to tell him that when she had knelt down to the god, begging for an exception, the pendant began to shine eerily bright, captivating the god in awe--her own personal trump card. He begged her for it then. And so each time they would return to the demon world, her pendant would dematerialize, and instead, a mythical “key” would take its place hung around her necklace--the very object the god said would grant them entrance back into the realm of demons, but only ever for

“One week,” she said then. “We may come back each year to see you for one week only, then you must ensure we return and the key is taken back afterward. That was the deal we made. It was the _only_ deal I could make…” 

And so it had been that way. As they made their way into the human world, he stayed faithfully behind with his friends from Lambda--Barabra, Cislo, Vincent, Zazie, Hayato--who would refuse to leave his side even if it meant compromising their safety by staying with him in the demon world. 

For the past four years, Emma and Ray would lead a group of young adults and older children from their family to the secret passageway hidden amongst the farms they were raised at as children that leads to the demon world--where he was forced to dwell in and guard against them. It was a dangerous trip for them: two long weeks’ worth of travel through almost desert-like wastelands, from what he was told. And he worried for them nonstop all the time leading up to their usual arrival. Only when he met them at the passageway, could he be certain of their well-being. It was a painful reality he had forced himself to accept overtime, but he tried to do with a smile. They always managed fine, despite his worries, and only cared for being happy with him after all of their trials. 

Today Norman had finally learned to trust them as he waited (semi)patiently for their arrival with his friends amongst the brick-layered hallway. But there was still _something_ that kept his shoe tapping upon the stony ground. 

_Emma_ , he mentally called out. _I’ve missed you for so long…_

Of course, he missed all of his family dearly. But over the years, the truth of his feelings for the girl he had always loved was becoming harder and harder to keep to himself. Though their time together in each year was short, they had been growing all the more closer--as if they had never stopped living only mere rooms apart instead of worlds. The stolen glances, the tender way they would hold each other, the meals they would share just between the two of them, the fact that she would always be the first to rush into his arms when they were reunited each year...these moments were spent with a sense of secret unspoken longing between the two of them. Was he wrong to think she may feel the same way about all those moments, even now? At least he was sure of his own, and this year for sure, he promised himself he would tell her so.

“Ey, Norman,” Cislo motioned towards the end of the hallway where the darkness at the end gaped like a hungry mouth, “They’re coming…”.

He was right! A faint glint, like a flicker of candlelight in the midst of the dark, danced for only a moment until an eruption of light and brightness enveloped the end of the tunnel--don’t ask him how, he had tried studying its physics for years, but somehow they were teleporting through space itself to materialize now at the end of the hallway.

Ray was the first to walk into the light of the illuminated corridor. “Yo!” his voice echoed. A huge smile burst onto Norman’s face as he recognized his dear friend and greeted him with a hug. “Ray, it’s so good to see you!”

“You must have gotten taller you doofus,” Ray replied teasingly. “At this rate, I’ll never beat you.” 

Norman laughed. Ray never really changed and he was happy about it. 

“ _Norman..!_ ” another all-too-familiar voice called. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest.

“Emma!” he smiled as he finally caught sight of his beloved friend, trying his best to keep his cool. 

She was as beautiful as ever. She had let her hair grow longer as bright orange blades of thick wavy hair tumbled a few inches down past her shoulders. Her frame had also grown like Ray’s as she was now a few inches taller, almost enough to match his height. Her ever round, baby-face was a little sleeker now, though she could never get rid of those freckles that sprinkled above her cheeks. Emma was a woman now.

Her emerald green eyes caught him and for a brief moment, they twinkled with joy as she rushed towards him for an embrace until they suddenly looked...sad? Something was wrong. She slowed down and gave him a gentle, forced hug--not at all as heartfelt as her past embraces. 

“It’s good to see you,” she said quietly.

“Emma…” he whispered. She quickly let go of him and stood back beside Ray, who seemed almost as equally as puzzled at her quelled greeting. 

“Norman!” a new voice erupted from behind his two returning friends. Don was catching up to them now, with several more familiar faces following close behind him including Gilda, Thoma, Lani, Phil, and Sherry. 

“Friends!” Norman cried as he hugged them all. Everyone had seemed to have grown while he was away. With teary eyes and runny noses, they hugged him and his Lambda friends. It was almost enough to make him forget the way Emma had looked at him. 

Almost. 

. . .

The trek back to the base usually never took longer than a day at most, but it seemed that with every step taken, ten more were added to the journey. Of course, conversation was a must to pass the time through areas unpopulated with feral demons. There were always new stories to share between Norman’s group and Emma and Ray’s of the past year’s exploits. New discoveries, friends made, and celebrations had were all popular topics that brought about tears and laughs from even stoic Ray. Yet more than anyone’s, Emma’s voice was always the loudest populating conversations each year. But this time, she was unusually laid back--almost reserved. 

There seemed to be times where her mouth would open ever so slightly to respond to a memory or laugh at a joke, but it quickly closed--at least, it was like that whenever he was around. Norman couldn’t help but think something was wrong. This wasn’t like Emma at all, who was always so open and boisterous amongst her friends. Was she sick? Ray didn’t seem to notice any of her peculiarities, and he was never one for missing details...unless he was ignoring them?

Nevertheless, Norman was determined to find out the cause of her silence--he would make it his personal mission.

“Emma-” he called out as he walked back towards the end of the group where she was ushering the older children onwards. “You better watch your step through those roots sticking out here. They tend to trip a lot.”

“Got it, thanks” she replied crisply as if speaking to a leader rather than a friend.

His pace settled beside hers as they walked onwards, almost in silence for a brief moment. “I trust you had no trouble during your journey here?”

“No…” she paused for a moment, as if carefully considering her next words. “No trouble.”

She _was_ hiding something.

“Ah, good. And how is everyone back at your settlement? Anna? Gilda?”

She exhaled. “They’re good. Everyone is fine.”

“I’m glad then… And yourself?”

She lifted her eyes from the ground she had been staring at as they walked and raised them to meet his. A smile erupted on her face. “Fine” was all that she replied as she sped her pace up towards Ray. He could have sworn he saw Ray glanced back at him for a moment, with a serious frown creased on his face. Was it something he had said?

Either way, it was obvious that Emma was not in the mood for small-talk. Their journey commenced with few stops and grey clouds seemed to blanket the sky, promising Autumn tears of rain. Norman remained towards the back for the rest of their trek while the others trailed ahead to their temporary home.


	2. A tear in the seams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has settled into their new home for the week, but not all seems at ease with Emma and her siblings. Can Norman find out the root of her anxieties before it's time for them to leave him again, not be seen for a whole year more?

As if in response to the deafening lack of commotion suffered throughout the trip there, the base was alive with activity upon their arrival, despite it being the middle of the night. Norman couldn’t force back a pleased smile when he noticed Zazie of all people had gone out of his way to hang streamers upon the base’s many ajutting tree branches, all by his own design. 

Many of the older children gasped in amazement at the decor and Jemima herself screamed in joy when she found her long-departed friend keeping a watchful eye over them from atop of one the tallest branches. 

“Awah! JemAH!” he cried after her as he swiftly climbed down towards them, pulling himself forward with his long overgrown arms. It was good that he had a chance to utilize some of his new vocabulary now with more friends to socialize with.

As soon as he had reached the ground, he enveloped Jemima in a zealous embrace and burbled out what Norman interpreted as a laugh. The girl was in tears from the joy of reuniting with her dear old friend. At the corner of his eye, Norman spied a warm smile spread across Emma’s face at the sight, but when she noticed him glancing at her, it quickly shrunk away abashedly.

“Boss,” Barbara tapped on his shoulder.

“Huh? Oh, yes!” he quickly composed himself and turned to face the eager party. “Everyone, if you are hungry, please feel free to help yourselves to the pantry. For now, Zazie, Barbara, and Cislo will guide you towards your rooms.”

. . .

As usual, Emma and Ray took the same two rooms next to Norman’s own that they had used every year. Given that no more than twenty people made the journey alongside them each year, it was easy to fit them on to two floors. The oldest after Emma and Ray in their group such as Don, Nat, Thoma, and Lani would take a room between those of some of the younger children in case they were needed for any reason. 

What one person might find cacophonous, Norman found comforting as he took a moment to listen to the thuds of running footsteps and muffled laughter outside his room coming from the corridors. The base was ahum with life and activity yet again. What were once lonely halls and empty dining rooms and dusty libraries and living spaces were now parts of a lively community bustling about with always a friend within earshot. Once again, it was a Paradise. As soon as he could wrap a warm robe on over himself, Norman made his way leisurely down the halls in admiration of the busyness. 

“Woah!” Nat laughed as he literally _slid_ in Norman’s direction on the hardwood floor, the socks on his feet gliding on its smooth surface like butter to a heated pan. Norman quickly stepped aside for his to slide past, chuckling bemusedly. 

“Oh, but watch this!” Don announced after him and began to run up into a more rapid slide until his footing began to wobble at the rush and give out and he began to stumble onto the floor, though not without a laugh. 

“Ah, be careful, Don,” Emma called to him in a concerned, almost motherly tone. Norman was almost taken aback by it--she sounded so grown. Typically, she would be not far behind, joining in on Nat and Don’s antics, but now she only looked on at them the way a parent would look after reckless children.

He noticed Ray standing by her, leaning casually against the wall. “Ey, Emma, you can lay back a little. Everyone’s okay and having a nice time. You can have one, too,” he thought he heard him tell her.

“Ah, yeah. Of course,” she replied with a tired sigh.

Suddenly, one of the youngest of their group, Yvette, approached Emma carrying a small bundle of cloth in her arms with a worried expression on her face. Norman watched as Emma knelt down to inspect the bundle in the girl’s arms but couldn’t make out what she was telling her. 

“Eh, is something wrong?” he finally approached the pair and asked. Ray eyed them with curiosity, though ever silent.

“Not really, just a--” Emma was about to explain when Yvette answered for her, always an eager girl. 

“My nightclothes have a tear in them. I wanted Emma to fix them like she always does.”

Emma’s eyes shifted to the ground, her cheeks reddening. 

The tear in Yvette’s clothes was not the only thing evident to him, but it seemed that now that he was paying closer attention, _all_ of his friends’ clothes bared some obvious imperfections. Most were dirtied, others had seams coming loose from multiple wears. Still, others had small patches of mismatched fabric sewn in to cover up any holes and gnashes--even the knee of Ray’s pants boasted a minute patch of plaid cloth sewn in. And now that he thought more about it, their clothing always seemed that way when he met them each year, but he had always assumed it was due to wear from their long journey back to his realm…

_“I wanted Emma to fix them like she always does.”_

“Uh, it’s alright, Norman. I can take care of this,” Emma suddenly cut off his train of thought. “Yvette, take this to my room and lay it on my bed, please. I’ll have it ready for you soon.”

“Thanks, Emma!” she said and was about to skid over in the direction of Emma’s room when Norman stopped her.

“Ey, wait there Yvette… here. It’s not your size, but it should keep you warm.” Norman said as he quickly took off his robe and placed delicately over her shoulders.

“Woa!” she squealed in delight. “So comfy! Thank you, Norman!” Then she ran off happily, the ends of the robe dragging behind her.

“Thank you, Norman…” Emma said with a soft smile. “That was very kind.”

“It’s nothing. Emma… are your clothes usually like this?”

Emma and Ray exchanged glances and Ray shrug his shoulders seemingly in defeat and walked off, leaving her with him only. 

“You don’t have to worry about that. It was just a little scratch she got on the trip. You know how reckless Yvette can be sometimes,” she smiled and began to yawn. “Ugh, what a day! I’m going to work on her clothes and then head to bed.”

Though it was obvious she had changed the subject on him, he did not pry. “Goodnight, Emma.”

For a moment, she looked back at him with a very real softness in her eyes and a small glimpse of what she was really feeling hidden behind them. It was the same look she gave him when he had met her at the gate.

“Goodnight, Norman.”

. . .

Two days flew by in the blink of an eye with a sense of forced serenity. Everyone had settled in well enough. Norman would even catch Emma playing happily along with the rest of her family and chatting merrily enough at mealtime, almost as if she were a vision of her younger days at Gracefield. And yet there moments--quick, inconspicuous, secret moments--where she would let herself wander with that sad glint in her eyes. 

She would stare upon her siblings with a melancholic smile, or glide her fingers across the smooth tabletops, her mind reaching back to unfathomable memories of some kind. If only he could ponder them with her instead of simply guess. Soon enough, they were fated to leave again back to the human world and he’d have no hope of next year’s solace. And there was still so much he wanted to tell her… He could only hope that what he had planned now would bring about an end to her subtle sadness. 

At the dawn of Thursday morning, siblings with drowsy eyes and yawning mouths stumbled sluggishly into the dining hall, expecting nothing more than breakfast but find something just as delightful. Where there would normally be plates set on the dining tables, medium-sized boxes were laid neatly. The surprise was enough to shock everyone out of their sleepy state.

“Norman, what’s going on?” Don asked anxiously. 

“It’s fine, everyone,” Norman smiled as he motioned his hand openly towards one of the boxes nearby. “Open them!”

Immediately, the party began to tear open the boxes, eager to behold its mysterious contents. Emma cautiously unwrapped the box that laid in front of her usual seat.

“Oh,” she cried out softly when hers was finally open. Whoops of joy exploded from the children all around them, but she seemed dumbfounded. “You shouldn’t have…”

“It’s nothing, really. It was the least I could--”

“Yo! Emma! Ray! These are great!” Don interrupted as he held up his brand new shirt for all to see. Yvette followed, boasting an even wider grin as she displayed her new set of pajamas. A smirk spread on Norman’s face from seeing his siblings’ elation at their new clothes. 

He turned back to see Emma still awestruck at her seat, staring blankly at what laid in her box. Norman had made sure its contents were just right for her. She gingerly caressed the soft coral spring dress that laid neatly folded inside. Her emerald green eyes seemed to grow round with every second longer she spent staring at it. Her cheeks seemed to blush a deep cherry red.

Ray put a hand on her shoulder, his own new shirt and pants folded over her arm. “They are nice, y’know,” he told her reassuringly, but she did not respond. She just kept staring at the dress, her mind somewhere else.

“Do you like it, Emma?” I had chosen it especially for you. Isn’t it like old times when you--”

She shot up out of her seat, her eyes hot with tears. What was mistaken for a blushing face was really now a look of shame, reddening from the effort of holding back the hot tears that welled in her eyes as she immediately ran out of the room. What was it that he had done wrong? What upsetting his dear friend so much!? 

He was just about to chase after her when he felt a hand firmly grasp his arm back. 

“Leave her be right now,” Ray said, calmly.

“Ray, what’s wrong? Tell me why Emma is like this!” he commanded, desperate to know what was really going on. If he could help, _really_ help, then he wanted to more than anything. But he couldn’t do that without first knowing the cause of her pain. So what was it the two of them were keeping from him?

Ray shifted uncomfortably. “Can’t say. I promised.”

Promised?

“There has to be something I can do,” Norman persisted.

Ray stuffed his hands in his pockets and grunted to himself. Norman knew what it was like to keep secrets from his friends, but it felt awful the other way around. 

“Yo, uh, Ray…” Don hesitantly approached, with Nat, Thoma, and Lani close behind. “Is Emma gonna be okay?” It seemed as though the younger children were oblivious to Emma’s sudden and dramatic departure, but the older children couldn’t let a sight like that go unnoticed. Not when it was Emma at stake.

Ray looked at them, and this his stone-firm gaze rested on Norman, “Give her some time. She will talk when she’s ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! How's the series shapin up so far? I think it's fluffier than what I'm used to but things are about to get tense, believe me. Feel free to comment and criticize as always and expected a new chapter sometime next week. Cheers!


	3. A Promise Remembered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to bestboi22194! I'm so sorry this was late but hopefully, you'll find the story to your liking enough so that you'll forgive me :)

Dark clouds brewed over the land, grumbling with the promises of heavy rain to come. They had grown in the sky over the last two days and a storm was ready to break forth any moment now. 

Emma had been as reclusive as ever--at least, that’s how she was around him. She had mostly stayed amongst her siblings as they explored the forests surrounding the base. He never once saw her in the clothes he had given her while the others had wasted no time exchanging their ratty old outfits for the new ones they had received. 

And now it was Friday. The group would have no choice but to leave for the gate leading back to the human world tomorrow night, with him as their escort, and then wave goodbye and come to accept the fact that he would have utterly no means to contact or see them again for the next year. He would have to wait an entire year to see Emma again--that is if she even wanted to see him again by then. If only there was a way, _any_ way to help her, to know the cause of her ailments and help remedy them as she had once helped him so. For now, there was nothing more he could do but give her the time she needed to herself.

By early evening, Norman was about to bid everyone back inside the base before it began to rain as he knew it might soon. For the day he had let the horses out to pasture and Barbara and Cislo had offered to teach several of the younger kids how to ride them as there weren't many opportunities to do so in the human world as horses were sparse there, as he was told.

“Everyone!” he called out authoritatively, holding up the lantern he had brought out with him. “Time to come in! Dinner will be ready soon!”

Soon enough, most of his siblings were slowly making their way towards the base, but two of his friends, in particular, were trailing far behind.

“I’m sure I had never taken it off! I never even touched it!” he thought he could hear Emma’s familiar high-pitched voice say as he spotted her following behind Ray. She sounded worried, paranoid, even. Her eyes darting towards the ground skittishly, surveying the landscape.

“It’s going to be okay,” Ray told her comfortingly, “Let’s just tell Norman.” 

Norman’s curiosity and concern towards her had peaked to an all-time high at this point. “Tell me what?” he asked as soon as they were close enough.

“It’s lost,” Emma spat the words out, bitterness and regret tainted her voice.

“What is?”

“The key,” Ray answered for her. “The key to the gate between our worlds.”

Norman’s eyes widened in alarm. If they couldn’t find the key in time for their return, who knew what vengeance the god may take for breaking the promise? And with Emma responsible for it, the punishment for her…

But how could she have lost it, to begin with? She had always worn it protectively around her neck at all times. He could never remember a time he’d seen her without it ever since the promise was made. 

“It had to have slipped, or--or _something_. I _never_ took it off. The string must have been loose. It must have fallen off…” she cried in desperation to make sense of her mistake. 

“Perhaps,” Ray stated, placing a soft hand on her shoulder, “Emma only noticed about an hour ago, but she swore she had it on her this morning.” He stopped for a moment, a new thought struck him and he turned towards Emma again, “Emma, maybe it fell off when you were exploring with Yvette and Chris in the forest today.”

“But I looked everywhere already,” she said defeatedly. It was clear that his words brought her no comfort.

“We thought maybe you could help,” Ray proposed, but something was off about the way he said it. He looked at Norman dead-straight in the eyes, unblinking, as if he was trying to tell him something without speaking. But in the heat of the moment, all subtext was lost on Norman. He just wanted to assist Emma in any way he could.

“Absolutely,” he agreed, sending Emma a wide reassuring smile, though it did little to enlighten the gloom on her face. 

He peered up at the skies. Gloom wasn’t only on Emma’s face. The clouds had grown larger and greyer on the horizon, most likely pregnant with rain. But he calculated there were at least a couple hours left before the first rainfall.

Cislo was walking past them as he was leading one of the horses back towards the stalls for the evening. “May I?” Norman asked, holding out his hands for the reins.

The large man glared curiously at him, then over at Emma behind. “Of course!” he said with a goofy smile and gave him the reins. Norman could already feel his cheeks uncontrollably redden. _That’s not what this is about!_ he thought, and he thought… His cheeks grew redder.

Without another word, Ray followed Cislo back towards the house. “Ey!” Norman called, “I was going to ask for another horse! You aren’t going to help?” Without stopping, Ray replied with a mischievous smirk on his face and with a shrug of his shoulders. Something was definitely afoot with that boy.

It was just him and Emma now

The soft chirping of crickets filled the air between them with solemn song, easing the tension. Norman wondered if he should mention her feelings towards the clothes, but seeing her unease already beginning to manifest, he opted for a lighter subject for conversation as he pulled himself onto the saddle laid across the horse’s back. “Do you know how to ride, Emma?”

“No,” she replied, stroking the horse’s long snout. Although lines of worry creased on her face, simply being near the animal seemed to bring out a faint smile to her lips, and a glimmer of light flashed in her eyes. “He’s lovely.”

“He’s a “she”, actually,” Norman chuckled. “And she’s very gentle. Her name’s Penelope.”

“Penelope…” Emma whispered the name to herself, amused with it.

“I could teach you how to ride her. It’s very simple.” At that, he held out his hand to her from atop the benign beast.

With that same glimmer in her eyes, she now sparkled with determination and ambition. She wasted no time grabbing his palm and he pulled her up steadily onto Penelope’s back in front of him. He motioned the horse towards the direction of the forest. 

. . . 

Teaching Emma the basics of how to ride took even less time than he had expected, but then again, she had always been a fast learner. Within minutes, she had taken the reins and guided them through the forest, lithely motioning Penelope to swerve through trees and hedges with gracefully eased tugs and pulls. 

What must have been two hours past like two minutes. For the first time since she had arrived days ago, they were enjoying their time together. Although she never mentioned why she had been so upset lately, Emma slowly but surely burst through her weathered shell and acted lively, with energy anew whenever they rode Penelope to where they needed to go search through next; or when they had to painstaking retrace her steps throughout the forest, chatting meanwhile about the silly exploits her and their younger siblings had undertaken for the day or their old times together as children lightheartedly exploring the woodlands of Gracefield. Now, with five days over and gone, Emma was letting him in again once more. 

But all that wasn’t enough to find the key. Despite their constant and overzealously thorough efforts searching under every rock, shrub, and hedge--searching in hollow tree trunks and the shallow sides of streams, it was nowhere to be found. Norman sensed the grumble of the sky overhead.

“I think it’s time to head back now, Emma.”

Wrinkles of worry creased upon her face once more. “No, it can’t be! I _can’t_ lose it! How can I fulfill our end of the promise without it?”

“We can figure that out tomorrow,” he said as he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and lead her back to where they had tied Penelope. “We can come back with even more eyes to help us in our search.”

Emma walked along uneasily and peered back at the scene from which they had been searching, hopelessly scanning the ground just one more time in vain hopes of catching a glint of metal somewhere among the grass. When they had reached the horse, she finally turned her gaze back towards him with a defeated sigh. 

He hopped onto Penelope and swiftly helped her up in front of him and she took the reins motioning the gentle creature back in the direction towards the base. This time, they rode along slowly and silently, without the sense of determined urgency with which they had started their search. Fresh drops of rain began to kiss their heads. 

“Damnit,” Norman cursed. “I had hoped we could find it before the rai--”

“Wait” Emma commanded suddenly.

“What?”

“Did you hear that?” she asked, suddenly inquisitive. Norman silenced himself and tried to hone in on whatever sound had caught Emma’s attention. It took a moment to differentiate amidst the sound of quickening rainfall upon the ground, but he had begun to hear it--faint sounds of laughter arising from somewhere in the distance. Without hesitation, Emma rode onwards, in its direction. She lead them to a small crested cutoff from which they could see a grand view of the clearing from where the base sat below.

To their astonishment, their friends had left the shelter wearing thick leather coats and were now all playing in the downpour, jumping in puddles and forming balls to throw at each other from the thick mud forming all over the ground. 

“They hardly ever see rain anymore…” Emma mumbled quietly. 

“Huh?”

“The rain. They love it,” Emma replied and watched them from above with a kind of sad admiration. “Though if I have to be honest, if we were with them now, I would have told them to go back inside before they caught colds.” Norman burst out in laughter upon hearing her say that.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“It seemed that not so very long ago, you would have been splashing along with them.”

“Ah, well, it’s--!” she stuttered her rebuttal, but eventually found herself willing to admit that there was no sense in arguing with his point. “Yeah...I guess I would have, huh?”

She peered down again at the scene of her family below lovingly. “I’m glad they had a chance to see the rain before we leave…”

The crickets started up again with their soothing symphony. Although the rain was growing heavier, the thick boughs of the forest trees towering around them made it so that only occasional sprinkles of the water showered upon them. Penelope had begun to graze upon the sweet dewed grasses on the ground, seizing the opportunity their lack of movement provided. And the view below only made their moment of respite all the more comfortable. Perhaps there wasn’t a need to rush back to base right away.

Norman lifted his head to the skies, “Ah.”

“What is it?” Emma asked.

“We’ve spent so much time staring at the ground that I almost forgot how luminous the night is,” he whispered in reverent, hushed awe as if not wanting to interrupt the magic of the moment. 

The overhanging tree branches were not cruel enough to fully obstruct their view of the sky. Littered in the gaps between the rain clouds, trillions of fiery blue dots of luminescent stars were sprinkled, shining bright and triumphantly against the inky blackness of space. It was a sight worthy of all their troubles combing through these think woods. Memories of their childhood when they would sneak out to star-gaze flooded back to him.

“Woa,” Emma whispered as peered up and looked upon the sky with him, leaning her head against his chest. Norman’s heart began to beat so rapidly he was sure it would burst out from his chest and do a little dance for them. But he tried his hardest to calm himself down enough so that he could will himself to speak without trembling. He kept staring up into the sky as he spoke.

“Hey, Emma…”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember that time not so long ago, on a night like this one--my eleventh birthday?”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember when we ate outside, and as the others were playing you had stayed by me and asked me to tell you what it was I was thinking about?”

“Of course. You wouldn’t say, so I made you promise that you would someday.”

“Hey, Emma.”

“Yes…”

The hum of the nightlife around them and the gentle pitter-patter of the rain sang along with their voices. Norman finally brought his eyes down to earth and stared affectionately into the eyes of the girl he loved. Whom he had always loved. “Do you now know what it was that I was thinking about then?”

“Maybe…” she mumbled, her eyes wide with hope. 

There were a million ways before then that he had imagined how he would go about telling Emma of the depth of his feelings. A million different words he had used to write failed drafts of a million different love letters and embarrassingly bad poetry. A million ways to orate a truth so simple and innate to him. But just then, at that moment, nothing else could possibly compare with how he softly pressed his lips against hers and let the night-time hum of the world around them serenade this moment they had together, one which would forever be lovingly etched in their memories. The rain added to their communion with gentle damp pecks against their heads and the two young people, hopelessly in love, carelessly laughed and smiled together with more heart and feeling than they had laughed and smiled to other beings before in their lives. 

Emma now looked at Norman anew, with a dream-like gaze and an unapologetically wide grin stretched across her blushing face. But her joy was short-lived. As if a switch inside her was turned, those sparkling green eyes now flooded with water not poured forth from the sky, but from the depths of her heart. She suddenly grabbed Penelope’s reins and with a fierce “Yah!”, she commanded the horse to dart as fast as a bullet into the body of the forest. Norman quickly tried to recoup from the sudden acceleration by holding on tight to her waist. 

“Emma, where are we going?” he asked as Penelope quickened her pace under Emma’s command.

“Let’s run away, Norman! From the base, from the gates, from the human world and the promise. Let’s escape!” she cried. Her tears overflowed as they galloped on. Norman held onto her and endearingly rested his chin on her shoulder. “Slow down, Emma,” he told her softly against her ear. 

Reluctantly, Emma forced herself to rein in Penelope and slow the horse down to a quaint trot alongside the edge where the forest almost ended. 

Tears that were held back for days gushed forth now as Emma cried out before Norman, sobbing into Penelope’s mane as Norman hugged her silently and gently combed back her messy hair with his fingers. Her sobs pierced Norman’s heart, but he knew that it was better for her to let out all of her sorrow now instead of holding back the pain inside. He had learned that the hard way years ago.

“This promise, this _curse_ has been nothing but trouble for us. Because of what _I_ did, Norman, our family never has nice clothing, of full bellies. The pleasant lives we had always dreamed for them have come to nothing. The human world is a wasteland and I damned them to it,” she confessed as soon as her cries had died down enough. 

Her head lowered sorrowfully and her voice cracked under the weight of her words “I damned myself to it…”. She forced herself to look at him, “I damned myself from you.”

“Emma…” Norman stroked her cheek, “Is this why you’ve been so avoidant?”

She looked away, shamefaced. Ah, so it was.

“I’ve always loved you, too, Norman. But it was only in the past couple of years did I come to realize the extent of those feelings. And when I did, I tried to deny them. I knew because of the promise--the promise _I_ made--that they’d only cause you unnecessary pain.”

But it was obvious that they had caused her pain instead. 

Her words hit him like punches to the gut. She had loved him, as he had loved her, but like him so long ago, she had pushed those feelings aside for the sake of not burdening him. If only she had known that nothing she could say or do to him could ever lessen the happiness he felt when she was with him.

“I know there’s nothing you can do about any of it--about me or our family--so I didn’t want you to be concerned. But after seeing you again and seeing everyone so happy here, I guess I didn’t do such a fine job keeping my composure after all.”

He wouldn’t stand this any longer. He grasped her closed and kissed her again, firmly, then looked her straight in the eyes. 

“Your words or _anything_ that you say or do or feel could never do me any disservice. My only wish is that you would have confided in me sooner, as I can’t remember ever being so happy until now.”

“Then…” she softened, relieved. “I’m glad. Even if it’s just for this moment, I’m glad that I told you.”

They were silent for a moment, as they let all their emotions experienced and words exchanged in the past minutes settle within their hearts. Finally, after a minute, Norman broke the silence.

“Emma, there was a time when you wanted to escape with all of our siblings at Gracefield. And there was a time when you told me there was a way to spare the demon race while saving our own. You’ve always defied the impossible. You still can,” he took her hand and held it close, “We still can.”

With those words, her eyes sparkled and her eyes straightened as if a new force reinvigorated her.

“You have a plan?” she asked.

“I think so, but I can’t do it without you.”

Emma smirked, “What’s the first step?”

“Marry me.”


End file.
